


What I Gotta Do

by Calliopeia



Category: Ever After High
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:41:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23901748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calliopeia/pseuds/Calliopeia
Summary: In a world where fairytale characters exist, if you are the descendant of one of them you are destined to repeat their tale. Some love it, while some despise it. A few were raised to be the perfect character, others were taught to not accept what others expected of them.Apple White was taught to be the perfect Snow White.Raven Queen was raised to choose her own destiny.Daring Charming was molded to be everyone's favorite toy.But, what happens when the destinies they have been pestered with through out all their lives change? For the better or worse, everything they were told won't matter.
Relationships: Daring Charming/Raven Queen, Darling Charming/Apple White
Comments: 10
Kudos: 55





	1. Chapter 1

I’ve come to realize something on the last days. I don’t know if it was because of the constant visits to museums, or the images that keep flooding the news about the next up coming artist, but the point is that I saw it, and once I saw it, I just can’t unsee it.

People love statues.

Why? I’m still trying to figure it out. Because in the museums I’ve gone to, people usually stare for a few seconds to a painting. They’ll observe in silence, and talk about how well made it is and about the color combinations. But then they move on to the next painting and forget everything about the beautiful skies that had caught their eyes. They move on to the next thing without a sense of regret, a sense of guilt. No one feels guilty for leaving alone a painting.

But then in the scultpure gallery, things go a bit different. Inmediately, the statues grab everyone’s eyes. What is it about statues? Is it how they look so similar to us, so human. You can see their eyes and they can see you back, their lips look soft to the touch and their veins seem to hold real blood. They look so similar and yet so different. People will talk about how beautiful it is, how human it looks.

“It looks perfect”, they’ll often say. And usually, statues are made to be perfect.

You grab everything you love about one person and then freeze it in time. They way they stand, the way they hold themselves when they walk. The little glances, the hidden smiles. You grab it and hold it and never let it go because it is perfection.

If you see the best painting and the best statue side by side, you would only remember the statue. It doesn’t matter that the painting holds true colors, that it actually made you feel and reflect into yourself. The statue was perfect on the outside, and sometimes that’s all that matters.

I think my mom raised me to be a statue. _Her_ statue.

“Sit up right”  
“Don’t laugh with an open mouth”  
“Always look presentable”

“Don’t curse”

“Be kind”  
“Be beautiful”  
“Be perfect”

I was made to be perfect, I was raised to be perfect. And for some people, I camouflaged myself as a statue good enough. But for some others, like my mother, I was nothing but a mediocre painting at best. It didn’t help my case that I was born with the wrong hair color.

“Why is she blondie?”

“It must come from your family”

“Impossible. Every Snow White has always had dark hair”

Every Snow White was kind, every Snow White sang like an angel, every Snow White dressed impecably, every Snow White played at least three instruments, every Snow White spoke at least 5 languages.

Every Snow White was born perfect, except me.

It’s not easy being the first at failing the family blood line. It is not made easier by a mother who keeps reminding you about how much of a failure you are.

“You see, Apple. The problem isn’t that you are not trying enough. Everyone can see how much you try. We all know that you give it your best. The problem itself is that your best isn’t enough, it will never be. Ever since you were born, you weren’t enough”

And so, you start looking for a way out. You start loooking for a way to make everyone happy, including yourself. It just happens to be that happiness is bottled in a poisoned apple that willl make you sleep for who knows how long.

Soon, your dreams become plagued with the idea of the apple, the apple. Then they tell you that you can’t give yourself that apple, somebody else has to give it to you. You start dreaming about them, they way they look, the sound of their voice. Sometime later you learn that this person, your savior, is supposed to be evil. That they are the villain of your story. And you don’t mind because in your eyes, and in your eyes only, they are the person that is going to give you the apple that is going to unlock your happily ever after.

And you need it. You need _them._

I went to school for a year, my first year at Ever After High. From the first day, all I could hear was about how evil Raven Queen was, how evil she looked.

She only hung out with Rebels, they said.

She only wore dark colors, they whispered.

She used her dark magic to get what she wants, they hushed.

She was perfectly imperfect, I thought.

I didn’t care how evil she was, I was happy as long as she was evil. As long as in some years she would poison me, I had no problem with Raven Queen.

But then the rumors stopped. The whole school suddenly stopped talking about her, and they started talking _to_ her.

By the end of the year, everyone was her friend. Everyone loved her. Everyone thought she was beautiful, the fairest of them all.

Wasn’t that my story?

Wasn’t that my destiny, my happy ending?

She didn’t deserve it. She never had to live through hell every single day, she never had to go through special classes and special enchantments that would correct all of her mistakes. She never found herself asking a mirror if she would ever be pretty enough with a bottle of dark hair dye in her hands.

She wasn’t raised to be _her._

So what if Raven Queen was beautiful? What if she wasn’t mean? What if she wasn’t evil?

It was the first year only, and our destinies would be sealed on second year.

That was enough time for me to show everyone else who they should love, who they should admire. It certainly would be enough time for her to realize that she isn’t acting the right way.

I can be perfect, at least a little bit, with her help.

I will be the statue everyone remembers this time.

I will be perfect.

“You will be perfect this time, won’t you Apple?”

“Yes, mother”.


	2. Toys

I love my life.

There’s nothing wrong with it.

Everything is made tailored for me, everyone looks up to me. I am the guy you look for when your kitten is stuck in a tree, the guy you ask for help in math homework, the guy who always lends a helpful ear and shoulder to their friends.

I am the best company for everybody. I will help you, it is in my veins.

Do you need help moving boxes? Don’t worry, I’m already on my way.

Do you need a partner in crime? As long as my name doesn’t appear on the tabloids, I’m here for you.

Do you need someone to open the door? I’m your best gentleman.

Do you want a fake boyfriend? I’m here.

Want a toy to take care of all your stuff? I won’t even speak.

Want me only for my looks? I’m used to it.

Got a little problem so now somehow I am responsible for all your life? I promise I won’t fail.

Need a Prince Charming to work out all your needs? It’s in my name.

I love my life.

I really do, there’s nothing in it that I hate.

Just like how I love it when people I don’t know call me to go to parties so that more people go. Or when that childhood friend made me take the blame for their mistake. Or the way girls and boys stare at me when I enter a room. After all, I’m a Charming. Everyone knows I’m just here for them to have some eye candy, bring some sweetness into their lives.

So yes, I don’t mind it.

I don’t mind when they take photos of me without my knowledge.

I don’t mind when they talk to me as if I was too dumb to understand anything they say.

I don’t mind when their hands travel all around my body.

I’m a Charming, everyone’s favorite toy. I don’t mind.

I don’t.

Why would I?

My destiny is to marry the most perfect girl, the fairest of them all. I am meant to be King of all Kings. My life is perfect.

And I need to keep it that way. Nobody wants to see a Charming doubt himself, no one wants to hear him say no, no one want to see him cry. Charmings can’t ask for help, they can’t ask for an understanding friend, they can’t show that all that saying yes somehow hurt them.

So I don’t.

I keep it quiet, keep it out of my perfect life. And every night when I go to my room, as I feel the loneliness start to set in, I remind myself to breathe. I drag myself out of my room, to the balcony, to see the stars.

I breathe and remind myself that it’s all part of my perfect life.

I breathe and remember that once I fulfill my destiny, it will all be over. That I just have to last that long.

And the first year in Ever After High was a step closer to that.

Daring Charling and his dashing smile.

Daring Charling and his blue eyes.

Daring Charling and his stupid mind.

Daring Charling and his narcissism.

Every day, they would all speak. They would all talk about how useless Daring is, how I am only alive to give Apple White her destiny and some children. That as soon as the kiss is over, I’ll just be another Charming of thousands.

I never speak back.

Until someone did it for me.

“He’s stupid, he’s just a little puppy following Apple around”

“Who, Daring? Haven’t you ever talked to him? He is so fun to talk to. He just knows so much stuff and he loves to share what he knows. And he’s funny. He’s very funny and sarcastic. If only you spoke to him once, you would realize that he is more than just Apple’s future husband”

“I _have_ spoken to him”

“Yes, but did you actually listen to what he tried to say? Or were you just expecting him to listen to you?”

That afternoon, when I went to breathe with the stars, I remembered her. Raven Queen, the next Evil Queen. My enemy based on our destinies.

We had taken one class as partners because Apple had to go back to her mother. She helped me do the class work, unlike others. And once we were finished, she asked me about my day. About my life. She was actually interested in me as Daring, not just a Charming.

It was the first time in a conversation I didn’t have to make the other remember I was actually a person. I liked her. She was nice to me, she was kind.

Sadly, I never got another opportunity to speak with her. It wasn’t that I hadn’t tried, whenever I saw her alone, I would try and get near. But Apple always stopped me, she always had an emergency I needed to tend to. So Raven had to wait until next time, and next time, and next time.

The only time I actually interacted with her was in the halls when I would smile and nod to her. She would smile and nod back.

Raven Queen was the only person who would smile and nod back to me.

But I’m a Charming, and Apple’s Charming.

Charmings can’t be friends with Evil Queens, it isn’t part of our perfect lives.

Raven’s smiles and nods would be as close to a real life as I would ever get.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A song I was listening to while writing: The Night King, by Ramin Djawadi

**Author's Note:**

> A song I was listening to while writing: That Night, by Lucia Zambetti


End file.
